AHI Architectural Heritage Intervention

“Contributing to enhancing our heritage, as the way forward for 21 st Century architecture is our raison d’être; to emphasize a diverse, rich vision that necessarily complements the intervention is our mission, and achieving it with reflexive and purposeful efforts is the challenge”.

This project, founded in, and directed since, 2011 by Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano and Jordi Portal, architects and members of the Group of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage (AADIPA), has, through the years become a platform that includes four actions that are both independent and transversal.
 
The European Award, a biennial event that brings together and showcases the multiple approaches of intervention in Europe.

The International Biennial, a framework that serves to compare and gain closer insight of quality interventions in architectural heritage in non-European countries.

The digital Archive, a live and open window that provides a panoramic view of interventions in the history of our surroundings.

The Forum, a meeting place where you can participate in on-going debates about the main preoccupations and lines of thought about interventions in architectural heritage in Europe.

EUROPEAN AWARD AHI 2025

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El Tanque Cultural Space. History of a Citizen´s Battle for Art

El Tanque Cultural Space. History of a Citizen´s Battle for Art

"Espacio Cultural El Tanque" reviews the civic struggle in defense of a former oil tank located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, that had been part of the 1st refinery of Spain, in order to preserve and repurpose it as a cultural space. The milestones of this 25-year process, started by an informal group of activists, today the non-profit Amigos del Tanque, are: - Tenerife Symphony Orchestra's performances, which halted imminent closure in 2010; - Declaring it, in 2014, protected industrial heritage, the first in the Canary Islands; - Urban Plan's change to save the Tanque; - Inclusion in the art spaces circuit of the Canary Islands Government, in charge now of its program and budget; - Calling of a public design contest for the rehabilitation of the Tanque setting. Los Amigos del Tanque should be aknowledged for their work in the intellectual defense of this space and its values. The love of art was their only weapon, which defied all obstacles - legal, urban, economic - to preserve a piece of the industrial heritage of the Canaries.

Category

Disclousure

Edition

6
Finalist

Year

2022

Author

Asociación Amigos del Espacio Cultural El Tanque

External collaborators

Fernando Menis, SLPU, CROWPLAN and Asociación Laboratorio de Investigación e Innovación. Islas del Mundo, AIE

City

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Country

Spain

Client

Public

Programme

Cultural Activities

© Photographer

Simona Rota